It isn’t about your team’s competence, it is how much of that competence the leader can draw out and maximize for the good of the organization.
To avoid the pull of Dominating Behaviors and Dominion Building tendencies, follow the Liberator approach to strengthening your bench:
1. Stay on Watch– Liberators know competence comes in many flavors and types. Sample them all to deal most productively with the range of problems that challenge your organization.
2. Find the Natural Genius in Your Team – Learn your team’s natural wiring and what skills come easily to them so you can identify contributions they can make without exhausting their time, energy, and passions.
3. Build Team Capacity– Once you know the areas in which your people excel, give them responsibilities that tap into it. Set them free to do their best work.
4. Avoid Trip Wires– Health Warning: When you are intentional to build relational apprenticeship to personally coach and invest in a teammate, know that the “herd of insecurity” may see this as a threat.
So what kind of Leader are you?
